The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-03-08
CASTE.
rhe All-Important Society Question
Succintly Portrayed.

author said that the horticultural life
would be emnently desirable were it
not for the impudence and power of
''pussly." Pussy claims place along
side of the pea, the strawberry, tho
violet, the cucumber, and the rose;
and yet that same ''pussly" contains
no single form Of merit except its te-
nacity of life. II it were subdivided by
the sharp and angry hoe, each stem
left in the earth would become the pa
rent of a whole progeny Of new plants.
Under the struggle with this weed, Mr..
Warmers mind was sinking. and to
recuperate. he took stage trip over
The Green Mountains. Riding for
day on the box with the driver, he
learned that that driver had once had
cottage and large vegetable farm, but
had been driven from home by the
wear and tear of his soul among "puss-
ly."
In the big garden where the human
family is busy among ruts. vines and
grains, this miserable, persistent weed
is called by the name OF Caste" but it
is the same old weed. 1t was probably
native of India, but it had flexible
nature, and could flourish in America
among Christians as well as in Asia
among the unsaved pagans. 1t is a
baneful weed, and yet there is an in
finite number of persons who are fond
of its juice.
The fondness for caste is an ailment
much like that congestion called the
big-head In India water-carrier who
draws from his master 81 month
chershes lordly contempt for the
cook or the washer or the wood
splitter. In the heat of argument the
waterman can detect some peculiar
merit in his craft-a merit which the
cook disputes as long as he can find
breath enough for the formation of
audible language. While this argument
is prevailing the Oriental barber lies
under tree, happy in the thought that
his ancestors go back into eternity and
began with the gods.
Out of these sublime distinctions be-
tween families came emblems of family
greatness, which were worked upon
rag tunic or nankeen nightcap in col
ors, which were made unfading by the
fact that the fabric was never wasted.
Thus began heraldry, and, without es-
sential change, thus it continues.
There is no town, city or village in
America where caste is more marked
and severe than in Washington, con.
tinues Professor Swing, in the Chicago
Journal. At Kokomo, Ind, and in
Blue Island, H., marked distinction is
made in favor of hard-shelled Baptist
and primitive Methodist, while at
Napanee of the United States, Dunk
err outranks q Presbyterian, and then
the First-day bunker IS outranked by a
Seventh-day bunker. These seldom
take tea together, and when bunker
child comes upon bag Of popcorn by
purchase or by the self-denial of chart
ty, he divides the treasure, should
division seem advisable, with boy of
his own rank in the realm of theologi-
cal potency,
After a most patient study of all
these centers of the heraldic sentiment,
the fairminded student cannot but con-
fess tina. the city of Washington pos
sesses more of this inclusive and ex-
elusive feeling than exists either at
Kokomo or Napanee. Many citizens
of the capital are either women, or
husbands of women, and in prosecut-
ing the chief ends of their lives they
are much around the dining-room ia
BILE when not under il, and out of this
mundane pursuit is born the question
whether the wife of a Cabinet officer is
greater than the wife of q Senator
This question now convulses Washing
ton. While this debate is pending, all
heads are big-heads. Could it be an
swered, some one class would be COM
PEELED to assume a normal state; the
other, or high-caste class, would then
be in danger of bursting with the inter-
nal ferment of greatness. Perhaps the
condition of suspense would involve
the less general injury and may be per-
mitted to continue.
The Talmudical philosophers suffer-
ed under the suspense Of a similar in
tellectual inquiry. 1t is not, (Which